Update

A bunch of readers have informed me via email that, for reasons which
are apparently unknown, Tuesday has long been the day when the music
industry releases new titles. So my “Release their new music on
Wednesdays?” crack about the day of the week is off-base, but come on
— the exact same newsletter title?

While I’m appending a postscript, it’s also worth pointing out the
subsequent questions in Mehdi’s Seattle Times interview:

Q. Why not the first out?

A. Apple had already gotten out before we had even thought
about doing our own particular service. We weren’t going to
be first regardless.

So then the question was, how quickly do we need to get out?
Do we need to respond in three months or should we take our
time and build a great service on our own plan, and that’s
what we decided to do.

Q. When did you decide to sell music?

A. A year ago. We actually sat down with Bill (Gates) and
Steve (Ballmer) because they were involved in the decision.
It’s a big decision to go to the point where we’re actually
selling music directly. We talked to them about it a year
ago and we went back and forth on it. We showed them a
prototype of what we thought we could deliver, and I think
that really blew people away.

Both of which answers seem to contradict the first, that they were “on a
path already to provide great music services” before the ITMS.